Using a USB only printer on a system without USB

[GeoBrookes]

Is it possible to add USB to a PII so I can use a USB only printer?

 

[Clanger]

fit a USB2 PCI card, you can get 2 or 4 port options

 

[Gary Tait]

fit a USB2 PCI card, you can get 2 or 4 port options

You need Win98 too.

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

Is it possible to add USB to a PII so I can use a USB only printer?

There are adapters that let you run a parallel port printer off of a USB
port, but NOT the other way around.

Your only option would be to buy a cheap USB card, assuming this is a
desktop computer. If it's a laptop, I don't know if there could be a PC
Card adapter? Also, you must be running Win98, ME, 2000, XP or 2003 to
support USB. NT and 95 have *NO* USB support at all. 95B sort-of has
support, but many drivers will NOT work with it.

 

[Michael]

You need Win98 too.

Or OS/2.

 

[Gary Tait]

Or OS/2.

But are there OS/2 drivers for the printer? My i320 only says
Win98/ME/2000/XP.

 

[Michael]

But are there OS/2 drivers for the printer? My i320 only says
Win98/ME/2000/XP.

That's because few apps ship with OS/2 drivers; Win is "in", it seems.
My Epson C80 came with a lovely software CD ... which contained only Win
stuff. Totally useless to us OS/2 users. But we can grab drivers from
an IBM site.

Surely the Epson-supplied CD isn't full; surely a few kb of OS/2 drivers
would have fit on it too. Weirdness!

 

[Gary Tait]

That's because few apps ship with OS/2 drivers; Win is "in", it seems.
My Epson C80 came with a lovely software CD ... which contained only Win
stuff. Totally useless to us OS/2 users. But we can grab drivers from
an IBM site.

Surely the Epson-supplied CD isn't full; surely a few kb of OS/2 drivers
would have fit on it too. Weirdness!

My thinking is Epson does not write those drivers, IBM does, so Epson
has no right to include them on their CD.